Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has urged striking teachers to accept the 15 per cent of the Teachers' Peculiar Allowance, which the government is offering them.
Teachers are demanding 27.5 per cent payment of the allowance.
The governor spoke on Tuesday during a monthly live media chat, tagged: "Meet Your Governor".
He urged the teachers to end the strike "in the interest of the pupils, who have been at home for over three weeks".
Fayemi said the 12.5 per cent balance would be paid "when the state's finances improve".
Explaining that the ongoing recruitment of teachers was not aimed at replacing the striking teachers, he said: "The process of employing more teachers to fill vacancies in the Teaching Service was already on before the strike began in June."
The governor urged the striking teachers to emulate their counterparts in Ogun State, "who showed understanding with their state government and ended the strike when offered 15 per cent increase".
He said Ogun State, which earns N5 billion monthly, could only offer 15 per cent because of the heavy burden the demand would put on its finances.
Fayemi said the salary of teachers had been increased twice since he assumed office to motivate them.
He said: "Teachers were on a minimum wage of N8,500 when I became governor and they have enjoyed both the 33 per cent relativity pay and N19,300 national minimum wage.
"At the time the 33 per cent relativity pay rise was packaged for core civil servants, teachers showed interest and were included in the package, which they believed was higher than the 27.5 per cent special allowance."
Fayemi said the implementation of the 27.5 per cent allowance would increase the state's monthly wage bill by N172 million, which would translate to over N2 billion annually.
He said the current monthly wage bill is N2.2 billion and the state is left with N400 million for capital projects.
The governor said: "My attitude is to continue to appeal to them because all of us are stakeholders. We are talking to them and we believe that good sense will prevail in the end."
On ongoing projects of his administration, Fayemi promised to complete them as scheduled. He said they are being financed with the N20 billion bond sourced from the capital market.
The governor said the State Pavilion to be used for ceremonial events would be completed before the year runs out, adding that work has reached an advanced stage at the Funmi Olayinka Civic Centre.
Dismissing claims in some quarters that the new Government House is not a priority, Fayemi argued that the structure presently being used as the Government House was designed to be a guest house.
He said: "Ekiti is not a second-class state. I have visited other Government Houses in the country and I know what obtains there. This is not my personal building and when I finish my tenure, I will not carry it to Isan-Ekiti. That is why all these projects are called legacy projects."
